Introduction
Every year, more than 1,37,000 people die in India as a result of traffic accidents. In 2016, there were over 413 traffic accidents every day in India, resulting in over 1000 deaths. These figures only serve to highlight the significance of road safety measures in our daily lives.
Journalists, even as individuals, have enormous power to facilitate change because they shape public discourse. To honor this change-making capacity, Indian Road Safety Campaign, with the support of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways extends an invitation to an Article writing competition on road safety in Indian regional languages (Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Hindi and Oriya).

Objective
The competition is introduced to recognize writers/columnists who have continued to work on the issue of road safety in India and who have brought important stories to the forefront. Furthermore, the activity is being conducted with hopes that the attendees will reflect on contemporary societal concerns concerning road safety and acquaint themselves in order to become better informed and proactive road safety warriors.

Possible themes (but not limited to) -
- The articles should reinforce the importance of road safety in India
- Articles that showcase good Samaritans and prompt response in golden hour

Timeline
Call for entries - 8th November 2021
Deadline for submission of entries - 20th December 2021
Announcement of Results - Third week of January 2022

Prizes
A prize money of INR 5,000/- and a certificate from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will be awarded to the top 20 Winners across languages.

Eligibility criteria
Anyone can register on the portal and participate in the competition. The participant has to write an article on road safety and get it published in any regional/ vernacular newspapers (online/ offline)/ Magazine/ E-Magazine). The same has to be uploaded on the portal along with the newspaper/magazine clipping or link to the article in case of an e-publication, in order to confirm the participation. However, the prizes will be awarded to the winners in an individual capacity with no affiliation to their news organization(s). The participants are mandatorily required to mention the language of the article and the link to the article in the Comments section to be qualified for the competition.

Judgement criteria
A jury shall be constituted to judge the competition. The jury members shall evaluate the articles based on the following:
1. Focus on road safety and relevant content in vernacular language
2. Relevance of the article with the regional issues
3. Impact, readership and reach of the newspaper/magazine/e-site where the content is being published

Click here to read the Terms & Conditions - PDF (462 KB)